Anglers –

January 25, 2015

Similar patterns this past week, winter weather hard to predict, though the all-around climate is very pleasant and light crowds are enjoying themselves, soaking up the available warm sunshine. Winds have been more predominate again from the north and this has limited what areas the sportfishing charters could comfortably operate on any given day. Inshore areas north of Punta Gorda are seeing more greenish colored cooler current push in from the north, water temperatures are dropping as well, from the lower 70s up to the 75 degree range. Baits sources are supplying charters with sardinas, caballito and there are ballyhoo available as well. Lots of whale activity now being seen on a daily basis.

Anglers found billfish action offshore, a bit hit or miss, but this week the bite for striped marlin improved offshore of San Jose del Cabo, anywhere from four to six miles out, many marlin were hooked into while drift fishing live baits down deep, also trolling on the surface. Dorado were spread out, more being found closer to shore than further out, these fish are traveling where their food source is. The majority of the dorado were small to medium sized, an exception of a handful of fish being over 20 lb. Striking more often on bait than lures.

Yellowfin tuna action picked up, especially in the Inner Gordo Banks, the wind factor was an issue, too much wind and swift current on certain days made this option difficult to impossible. Though there were a larger grade of yellowfin now on these grounds, up to 100 pounds, many in the 30 to 80 lb. class were hooked into, biting best on sardinas rigged on lighter leader of forty pound test. Some charters had as many as three or four of these nice tuna, other days we would see maybe one or tuna all together. So this late season bite was still sporadic, though fairly impressive to even have a chance at these quality fish at this time of year. Tuna were also found on the banks such as La Fortuna and Iman, these fish were mostly in the 15 to 30 lb. range, again hit or miss, depending on the north wind conditions.

These same fishing grounds were producing a mix of bottom structure species, not a lot of large fish, most were under fifteen pounds, though always a chance of a much larger specimen and all of these fish are the excellent eating variety. Catches were made on yo-yo jigs, as well as on whole and cut bait, including pargo, snapper, porgy, island jacks, bonito, triggerfish, amberjack, cabrilla and parrot fish.

Close to shore the sierra run is now in full swing, once found, these schooling fish are voracious feeders and the action often can be fast and furious on these scrappy gamesters that were averaging three to five pounds. Also a few roosterfish and jacks rounding out inshore catches. Most of the roosterfish now being found are juvenile sized and should be released unharmed whenever possible. Early in the morning while panga charters were waiting for bait suppliers some nice fish have been hooked into directly outside of the Puerto Los Cabos jetties, including yellow snapper, cabrilla and amberjack. This was a early bird special and would happen one day and then maybe not the next, though a few fish in the 20 to 30 lb. class were accounted for.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 16 striped marlin, 95 yellowfin tuna, 325 sierra, 15 roosterfish, 72 dorado, 45 bonito, 18 barred pargo, 28 yellow snapper, 15 island jack, 14 amberjack, 28 cabrilla, 12 porgy,

8 parrotfish and 32 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

January 18, 2015

As we progress deeper into the winter season, we are now seeing light crowds of tourists arriving in Los Cabos. With airplane fares becoming more reasonable, as fuel prices drop, we expect more people will realize this and take the opportunity to visit this winter wonderland. We have seen varying weather patterns, some days with cloud cover, with some scattered rainfall earlier in the week, scarcely measurable, then again on other days there was plenty of warm sunshine, with highs reaching near 80 degrees.

Winds were variable as well, the week started off very tranquil, then later in the week there were stronger breezes blowing from the north. These patterns contributed to anglers adjusted their game plans accordingly, as to where they could comfortable fish on a given day. Options varied from offshore, inshore and reef fishing. Ocean temperatures were ranging from 74 to 77 degrees throughout the region, greener off colored currents now pushing in from the north.

Anglers enjoyed excellent action for yellowfin tuna during the first half of the week, tuna were striking on sardinas off of the normal grounds, such as the Gordo Banks, Iman, Vinorama, La Fortuna and Punta Gorda. Easy limits were taken on yellowfin that averaged 15 to 25 pounds, with a larger grade of fish mixed in as well, some 30 to 50 pounds and even a handful topping the 70 pound mark. A local angler reported one tuna over 100 pounds while fishing with slabs of squid on the Gordo Banks, so even though this is now very late in the season, there is still a chance at a larger sized yellowfin.

Dorado were more hit or miss, though there were actually more of these gamefish accounted for this week, as compared to the previous. Found in small schools. Many very close to shore, ranging 5 to 25 pounds. Wahoo were seen, but not many were being hooked into, remember last season, when the wahoo action went wide open during mid-February, we are hoping for a repeat of that non typical scenario.

Inshore action remained steady for sierra, scrappy gamesters, ranging up to eight pounds, striking on sardinas, trolled hoochies and Rapalas. Some juvenile sized roosterfish and various jacks also found close to shore. Off the shallow rock piles there has been a variety of structure species encountered, though this action was not consistent from day to day, depended greatly on how strong currents and winds were.

We are now seeing the main concentration of both humpback and gray whales arriving for their annual breeding and feeding voyage to Southern Baja. Sea Lions are bountiful as well remaining a pesky nuisance on the fishing grounds.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 2 wahoo, 365 yellowfin tuna, 134 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 38 dorado, 28bonito, 12 white skipjack, 42 miscellaneous pargo, 5 island jack, 16 amberjack, 18 cabrilla and 25 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

January 9, 2015

After one week of colder weather patterns we have now seen the winds calm down and a return to pristine conditions, clear skies and warm sunshine, with highs of 80 degrees. Incredibly ideal, considering the freezing forecast across much of United States and Canada. Crowds are relatively light now, as is normal right after the holiday season, great time to visit, airfares have dropped and the Los Cabos area has made impressive rebuilding headway, most areas are now back to normal, pre-hurricane status.

The colder currents pushing in the last couple of weeks have dropped ocean water temperatures into the 74 to 77 degree range, which would still be considered warmer than average by several degrees for this time frame. The cooler currents also brought in greenish colored water, which in turn scattered the pelagic gamefish, but now conditions are rebounding and opened up more options for anglers.

Anglers are using sardinas to fish close to shore and are catching good numbers of sierra, ranging to as large as eight pounds, these sierra were also striking on trolled hoochies and Rapalas. These fish, in the mackerel family, do prefer the cooler water. A mix of shallow water structure species are now becoming more prevalent as well, pargo, of several varieties, cabrilla, triggerfish, pompano, island jack, porgy, bonito, mero hawkfish, even sheephead, as well as and others, all very good eating fish, striking on various baits, as well as jigs.

Dorado were very scattered, but handful are being accounted for every day, most were under 15 pounds. Only a few smaller sized wahoo were reported, these were found in the direction of Cabo San Lucas. Yellowfin tuna had become very scarce during the windy days, but in recent days we have seen some nice yellowfin being accounted for from the Inner Gordo Bank, as well as from areas further north, near Vinorama. These tuna ranged in the 20 to 50 pound class, nice for winter time fish. Anglers were using sardinas, strips of squid and chunks of skipjack to entice these tuna. No great numbers, but there was a chance at catching several.

The striped marlin action continued off of San Jose del Cabo, anywhere from 3 to 6 miles offshore is where most of this action was taking place, concentrations of baitfish have been attracting the billfish and anglers were trolling and drift fishing with live baits, as well as casting into feeding fish when the opportunities arose.

If the weather conditions how it is at this time, we could all be in for some great winter action, hard to predict, but last year we had warm water all winter and chances are this season might be the same.

Many more whales are now arriving for their winter stay in the Southern Baja region, other attractions included manta rays, seas lions and porpoise.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 18 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 27 dorado, 24 bonito, 15 white skipjack, 49 yellowfin tuna,140 sierra, 13 roosterfish, 1 sheephead, 15 porgy, 4 hawkfish, 65 various pargo, 8 island jack, 7 amberjack, 22 cabrilla and 30 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric